Some others fought in support of landlords against the Sangham . But land struggles continued in spite of these neutrals and opponents .
In this situation big contractors came along with Polavaram project . They are leaders of the ruling party and members of parliament ( Nama Nageswara Rao , Rayapati Sambasivarao etc .) W ith their entrance the bureaucracy became active . Previously when there was contradiction between landlords and adivasis , the bureaucracy which had to implement 1 / 70 Act was not able to take an active stand on behalf of landlords . With the advent of Polavaram project the officials brought a competition between development and the lives of the girijans . ( Development versus Adivasi life ). They argued that in order to build the Project which will bring development , some of the villages of Adivasis should be inundated . All these forces unitedly tried with the help of neutrals and opponents of land struggles to devoid of the results of struggles of adivasis . Corruption worked as a fuel to this . In several villages the land compensation was grabbed by the landlords instead of adivasis . All these developments happened in a process .
The foundation stone of Polavaram project was laid in November 2004 . By that time Raithu Coolie Sangham ( Andhra Pradesh ) and its affiliated organisation Agency Girijana Sangham placed before the government their demands for rehabilitation as follows : 1 . The construction of the project is to be started only after providing a comprehensive rehabilitation to all the displaced .
2 . Rehabilitation is not an act of charity . It is the right of the displaced people . The sacrifice made by them is to be recognised . Justice is to be done first to them and for others only after that . So , they are to be March - 2024 given land for land and forest for forest .
3 . Individually adivasis are poor . But socially they are rich . They are the joint owners of common and joint properties . The revenue and Land Acquisition Acts do not take these aspects into consideration while granting compensation . 95 % of adivasis do not possess pattas ( legal documents of ownership ) for their lands . But they are cultivating the lands . So , at first the government has to treat them all as peasants and grant land to land to each and every family . On these three demands the Agency Girijana Sangham has been fighting since 2004 with great militancy . It has struggled to make the people understand about comprehensive scientific rehabilitation . Wherever people understood this it moved forward along with them . It tried to make peope start from where they stopped to face difficulties . In the name of the construction of the project the government dealt in an aggressive way . Without consulting the people , the project work was started . They destroyed the graveyards and graves of adivasis with poclaines . They did not heed to their sentiments . The officers did not care the resolutions of gram sabhas and set aside all the rules . Moreover , Govt arrested the leaders of Agency Girijana Sangham , Comrades Sunnam Rajulu and Kunjam Ramarao and put them in jail accusing them of sedition .
In these conditions the girijans were afraid of their future and were very much agitated . The aggressive statements of the government that the project will be completed by 2009 made the girijans very much depressed . In that mental tension they stopped doing the household work and cultivation . In such a situation the top leaders of the Agency girijan movement Simhadri Subbareddy and others toured in the agency villages . They held meetings and in those meetings , they enthused courage among the girijans . They prophesied correctly in 2006 that the construction of the project would not be completed even by 2020 . They also explained that the government cannot complete the project by 2009 as announced by them because of differences among the ruling groups and because of scarcity of funds . So , the leaders called the girijans to cultivate their lands without any fear and to fight for rehabilitation . The girijans were asked to stand there until their lands are inundated by the construction of the project and continue their cultivation . People understood this and responded to this call and stood courageously . The people of Kondamodalu and other villages continued the cultivation up to June 2022 . The Prejudiced Officers of Land Acquisition - the Struggle of the Displaced for their Rights on Land - the Experiences of Kondamodalu :
The landlord class decided to disrupt the struggle for land rights by the adivasis of Kondamodalu with the help of the land acquisition officials of Polavaram project . Some land disputes that were already settled in favour of the girijans were reopened by officials in order to help the landlord classes . Without the knowledge of adivasis they served notices to the landlords through special court for land disputes and filed cases in the special court . In 1969 itself according to the 1 / 70 regulation a special deputy collector court was established with revenue officers as judges to look after the agency land disputes . Trials of land disputes were held in the sub divisional level courts after taluk court . At the end , by 1989 the district court gave a judgment that ‘ non-tribal landlords had occupied the lands of adivasis and they have to vacate those lands and handover them to adivasis ’.
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